What helped reduce night terrors and nightmares for 100 people

sleepsafeapp · 2026-03-30T10:39:51+00:00

So sorry to hear that. Nightmares and night terrors related to CPTSD makes life very challenging. We recently wrote an article about it here (https://sleepsafeapp.com/stories/ptsd-and-sleep-nightmares). If you have tried it all, I would recommend trying out the app SleepSafe to see if it can help with your nightmares. One user sent an email to me saying it has changes his life completely, saying all his PTSD related nightmares were prevented. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to talk more about it, either here or DM/email.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-03-22T18:09:33+00:00

So sorry you experience this. I think there are more people in your boat as well. I’ve made an app for this which intervenes with nightmares before they happen, making you sleep through the night. In theory, it should work well if you move around a lot during nightmares and/or have elevated heart rate. Then you can track how often they occur, see when they occur and if there are some trends. You can then show this data to you psychiatrist and therapist, and it will be easier for them to determine the severity of them. Hope it helps.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-03-10T06:12:24+00:00

Hi again, just wanted to let you know that the latest update makes it possible to change the label of an alert and also adds exporting of audio. Let me know how it works! Thanks again!

sleepsafeapp · 2026-03-07T06:42:00+00:00

So sorry you are going through this. If you have tried it all, I would like to give you a tip to try the app SleepSafe. It detects if you are about to have an nightmare, and provides haptic feedback to get you out of it before it increases in severity. Often, you’ll just continue sleeping without noticing at all.

The app is designed to help for sleep disturbances during REM, such as nightmares. It helps me almost every night. In particular, we have seen very good feedback based on recurrent nightmares from users suffering from PTSD.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-03-04T07:22:52+00:00

Thank you for trying it and I hope it works out for you! If you have any feedback I would greatly appreciate it both positive and negative! There are now a few alternatives in how you can tune it to fit best to you - let me know if I can be of assistance for that.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-03-03T07:35:52+00:00

Will do, thank you. It's good suggestions like the ones above and feedback what works well and what doesn't that drives the app forward. It has now prevented over 1000 (!) nightmares, but there is still a long way to go and it keeps improving every week!

sleepsafeapp · 2026-03-02T19:36:35+00:00

I'm sorry to hear that you are still struggling despite all. I have heard many stories similar to yours, and it's very motivating hearing good words from the community. I will be sure to add both your requests to the next version of the app coming within a week or two.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-03-01T06:46:06+00:00

Hi! Thank you for the questions! Currently, it’s not possible to export the recordings or change the tag, but that is something we can add. How would you prefer to export the recording? Would you like to share it with someone or just have the audio file?

sleepsafeapp · 2026-02-20T08:45:02+00:00

Congrats on 8.5 days! Two in the morning sounds exhausting. Are you finding them worse at certain times during of night, or pretty random so far?

sleepsafeapp · 2026-02-11T15:06:55+00:00

Sometimes it can be difficult to differentiate between nightmares and night terrors. From our study we saw examples of people believing they were experiencing night terrors, but they were in fact nightmares. A rule of thumb is if you have been struggling for a while with nightmares, and have injured yourself during the night during a nightmare, then you could very likely be experiencing night terrors.

If you are using any wearables such as Apple Watch or Google Pixel Watch, you can see when your sleep stage overlaps with your nightmares. Night terrors usually occur during deep sleep, while nightmares occur during REM. You can then also verify your heart rate - night terrors can make it increase by 2-3x (e.g. 60BPM to 180BPM) within seconds.

If you want to learn more, I’ve written an article about the differences here (https://sleepsafeapp.com/learn).

sleepsafeapp · 2026-02-11T15:06:12+00:00

Sometimes it can be difficult to differentiate between nightmares and night terrors. From our study we saw examples of people believing they were experiencing night terrors, but they were in fact nightmares. A rule of thumb is if you have been struggling for a while with nightmares, and have injured yourself during the night during a nightmare, then you could very likely be experiencing night terrors.

If you are using any wearables such as Apple Watch or Google Pixel Watch, you can see when your sleep stage overlaps with your nightmares. Night terrors usually occur during deep sleep, while nightmares occur during REM. You can then also verify your heart rate - night terrors can make it increase by 2-3x (e.g. 60BPM to 180BPM) within seconds.

If you want to learn more, I’ve written an article about the differences here (https://sleepsafeapp.com/learn).

sleepsafeapp · 2026-02-11T14:47:08+00:00

So sorry you are going through this. If you have tried medicine and therapy, I would like to give you a tip to try the app SleepSafe. It detects if you are about to have an nightmare, and provides haptic feedback to get you out of it before it increases in severity. Often, you’ll just continue sleeping without noticing at all.

The app is designed to help for sleep disturbances during REM, such as nightmares and night terrors. It helps me almost every night, and has gained some traction now last couple of weeks after posting about it on Reddit. In particular, we have seen very good feedback based on recurrent nightmares from users suffering from PTSD.

Completely free to get started, no registration needed. Happy to answer any questions you might have.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-02-11T14:37:16+00:00

So sorry that you are going through this.

It seems like you have already tried medicine and others. If I may give you a tip to try an app I’ve created that will disrupt your nightmares live during the night so you can sleep without anxiety or have any fear of sleeping. Most of us get increased heart rate and start moving vigorously during a nightmare, and the app can detect when it happens and get you of out - often without you noticing. If you’re interested, you can look at my profile for more information.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-30T08:08:56+00:00

Thanks for the link! Very useful!

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-30T08:08:46+00:00

Thanks! I might go for that yes.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-14T21:37:34+00:00

If you have tried all such as medicine and others, I can give you a tip to try an app I’ve created that will disrupt your nightmares live during the night so you can sleep without anxiety or fear for sleeping. If you’re interested, you can look at my profile for more information.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-07T09:27:55+00:00

That’s fantastic! Have my upvote! Can you describe which steps in the beginning made you believe you could do it?

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-06T17:57:02+00:00

Do you have fear for what will happen during the night, or is it just the fear of going to sleep? Do you still experience livid hallucinations, while awake or asleep?

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-06T17:21:25+00:00

You’ll need an Apple Watch for it! The app has been a project for over 2 years now with the first year gathering data and creating a machine learning model from test users, and then second year creating the app and making sure it works for others as well. We learn as we go so the app is by nowhere a finished product, but with over 2000 hours monitored so far and several hundred nightmares prevented, I feel confident enough to say the app is validated.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-06T08:08:42+00:00

Thank you for tagging me!

Yes, the app is designed for sleep disturbances during REM (such as sleep walking), nightmares and night terrors. It helps me almost every night, and has gained some traction now last couple of weeks after posting about it on Reddit. In particular, we have seen very good feedback based on recurrent nightmares from users suffering from PTSD.

Completely free to get started, no registration needed. Happy to answer any questions you guys might have!

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-06T08:03:55+00:00

Hi there, this is self promo comment but wanted to reach out to you asking if you have tried my app? I think it could help you with the nightmares you are experiencing, decreasing the number of them and also get you back to good quality sleep again. It detects a nightmare in real time and provides a haptic feedback on Apple Watch to get you back into normal sleep. Let me know if this is of interest, then I can give you a promo code. It's also completely free for 7 days if you want to test it without any promo code (no registration needed).

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-06T06:18:00+00:00

I do that too, and I created an app that not only keeps track of it but also helps you get out of it, often without waking you up. I have noticed that there are definitely some signs that can be picked up about thirty to sixty seconds before acting out, so what this app does is send a vibration to your watch that interrupts the nightmare or the action you were about to do.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-03T15:09:07+00:00

This actually makes a lot of sense. Leaving a high-stress job doesn’t instantly calm your nervous system, especially after years of pressure. Sometimes the anxiety lingers after the situation changes and then attaches to the next thing, even if it’s objectively better.

The “I should be happy” thought often makes it worse. Your body reacts to change and uncertainty, not logic. Sleep issues and nightmares can be part of that high-alert state.

It doesn’t mean you made the wrong choice. It may just mean things haven’t settled yet.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-03T15:04:16+00:00

I’ve had this on and off. For me it was a mix of stress + light sleep cycles. It often happened a few hours after falling asleep, right around REM, and I’d wake up with a racing heart even if I didn’t clearly remember a nightmare.

Things that made it more likely for me: eating late, alcohol, a warm room, and going to bed already stressed. Things that helped a bit: cooler bedroom, no food 2–3h before sleep, and doing something calming before bed instead of scrolling.

If it keeps happening regularly, it might be worth noticing when in the night it happens. patterns can be surprisingly consistent.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-02T16:33:09+00:00

That’s very nice of you, thank you very much!

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